Saturday, June 28, 2008

We are not a first-day-first-show-watching-family. We are not even a movie going family. I remember, when I had gotten married to M, he said, “Don’t expect that I would, like a newly-wed, take you to cinema halls for movies.” Not that I had lost much with that because I did not use to go to cinema halls to watch movies anyway, though I used to be very fond of movies. Good old TV had been enough for me. So, like a good wife eager to impress, I said, “Yeah, its okay”. Later I realized that it was NOT okay. Because, I must say, I secretly resented him watching a movie with his gang and having the cheek to come home and tell me the story when I would ask him how it went. While I understood his concern of not exposing me to the smoking-jostling-pinching-leching motley male-crowd [as if I was the only desirable female around :)] at conventional cinema halls of a small city, I would feel bad at having been denied the opportunity to watch a movie on the big screen, even if for a justified reason.

He is, now, a changed man. His love for movies remains intact, and it has also now conveniently enveloped me and the kids. Wow, how come, you would say? Arrey bhai, what with the PVR cinemas with their plush interiors and luxurious ambiance – he would like to take us to movies every single day of the week. We three, me and the kids, act like spoiled brats and would never say no. At one point of time, during R’s exams last October, we saw two movies in a row. In a joint family, this becomes embarrassing sometimes, because the parents are not movie goers. The last movie they saw in a cinema hall after even-they-don’t-remember-when was Chak De, that too when we could sell it, through kids, to Daddy and Mama as a movie promoting hockey. But they know their son well, and hence just smile when they see us merely giving him company to the cinema hall. Ek Abla Naari aur uske Becharey Bachhey !!!

Oh my god, how I digress !!!

What I had started off with was to share that we went to see Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic today. And to think it had gotten released only yesterday. Kids had been looking forward to it. Though I would have preferred to watch Sarkar Raj, yet I, for their sake, said yes to watching it. And I am glad I did. It is such a cute movie. I guess 50 percent of the hall was populated by kids who went home happy after watching Rani play the angel. Her smile, her eyes, her impishness, all wield the magic. R liked her skirt. Normally she says a pre-paid ‘NO’ to long skirts. Saif, in the role of a hardened-heart, matter-of-fact-business tycoon, looks great; the four kids do their jobs well in their roles. I would recommend it to all the parents with kids to go watch it with the kids, the time spent with them in the cinema hall would be worth it.

And I would ask the kids in adults to go watch it – just so they come out of the cinema smiling. After all love alone is not enough, one needs a little bit of magic in life, even if the magic IS of love.

Friday, June 27, 2008

This transliteration of the book Nimakh is an attempt to address the many requests of our non-Gurmukhi reading friends to help them enjoy the unique experience of experiments done in Punjabi Haiku by Amarjit 'Sathi' Tiwana. He gave his gracious permission when I spoke to him about this. I present the first installment of the haikus from the book. Though an effort to capture the phonetic sounds of Punjabi has been made, this transliteration may still be far from perfect. So, please feel free to ask questions about any typical Punjabi word. I have tried to give in italics a few words I thought might pose problems for persons not familiar with Gurmukhi and typical Punjabi.

Friday, June 20, 2008

~NM and IHM had tagged me on this. I am late on this. But here I am. And the hardworker that I am, I worked as hard on this one as I had on the previous one. From what I have learnt about the tag thing till now, one is to infect more bloggers. In keeping with the tradition, I would love to see others doing it.

I'm: what I look and express and experiment with.

I think: of family first.

I know: I am capable of doing much more than what I am doing.

I want: a lot from life including more adventure, more love, more peace of mind.

I have: the best guy in the world.

I wish: to give the best to my children and husband.

I hate: being helpless in any situation.

I miss: living in a village.

I fear: loneliness.

I feel: God has been very kind to me.

I hear: from my maid that the world will end in 2012.

I smell: of my favorite perfumes - I mean one at a time.

I crave: reading all the time, sugar post-meals usually, indulgence occasionally.

I search: for myself. I also look for ways to make my people happy.

I wonder: whether honesty begets honesty.

I regret: having lost dad when he was needed the most.

I love: being needed and being myself.

I ache: to go to Australia again.

I care: for almost everybody around me.

I am not: selfish and that is not good for me.

I believe: that everyone is basically good.

I dance: to bolian in traditional Gidha and total desi punjabi beat songs on the dance floor. However, the situation is "kee kariye nachna aonda nahi"

I sing: for Mahesh (only he can stand my singing).

I cry: mostly when hurt and sometimes when angry.

I don’t always: judge people right or guess their age right and this has landed me in hot soup sometimes.

I fight: anger and fat in the same order. And I usually fight for a cause.

I write: my heart out.

I win: friends.

I lose: battles with Mahesh.

I never: doubt that there is goodness in world.

I always: take people on their face value.

I confuse: tiger sharks with bull sharks.

I listen: to ghazals and quwallies while on a brisk walk.

I can usually be found: on the net, or in my room with a book, or cleaning up mess after the kids.

I am scared: of losing my loved ones.

I need: to invest in a very very good laptop with all the good features; and in one real big portable hard disc to store all my music at one place.

Since this tag has been doing rounds in the blog-world for quite a few weeks now, I m not sure I am the first one to tag you all. So, in case you've done the tag, ignore this. Otherwise, finish the homework in time to avoid facing dire consequences.This means "please do it".I would be honored to pass it on in case any other friends apart from those linked here want to do it.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Initially I posted only the original poem in Gurmukhi script. For those friends who know Punjabi but cannot read the script, I am transliterating it in Roman. I have dared try a working translation. Hope it makes some sense. There was some problem in spacing. So, I just ended up giving different colours to the three segments.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Jai is becoming very finicky about his food. Does not want to drink milk, does not want to have his usual big bowl of curd, sometimes he would say a plain no to food.These problems are not new to me. Rasan has gone through the same phase and I think I have tackled it efficiently. She had started to skate at Jai’s age. With such extra physical activity a growing child needs extra nutrition. She would eat with a little bit of convincing. This one, however, is a tough nut. He goes for tennis in the mornings and swimming in the evenings. (Alongwith Didi, of course). I was worried that with the continuous taxing routine, he might grow weak. Despite trying hard to convince him why certain foods are good for him, I was only partly successful.The other evening, I was talking to the swimming coach about Jai’s progress in the pool. He said Jai needs to develop stamina in order to be a good swimmer. So I thought the time had come to use another strategy. I told his coach to chat up casually in the pool with the lad about importance of good food. I fed the coach about the fact that Jai hates Protinex in milk and wants only Rooh Afza. Everyday Rooh Afza is cool, but not very nutritious. A spoonful of Protinex in milk might help with his protein intake.

After about an hour, when my little man came out of the pool, he said, of course in chaste Punjabi, “Did you see me? I did a hundred breadths today.” I said, “Yeah, yeah I saw you doing great in the pool.” While Rasan did her tenacious lengths of the big pool, I started talking to Jai.“I saw your coach talking to you in the pool.” (The truth is that I was away to my regular walk outside the stadium)

“Yeah,” he tried to dismiss the topic.“And what did you two talk about?”Again in chaste Punjabi.“Well, just this and that” (actually he said, “Bas eh oh”)“Ahaan, Even then, tell me what all did you discuss.”“About food, you know.” Okay, so he was opening up.“Wow, what? Did he tell you to eat something special?”“Yes, he said you can eat anything, Just DO NOT drink Protinex in the milk, cos it tastes bad, b-a-a-a-d-d,” and he made a face that is simply not explainable in words.